Various types of vending machines have been used to supply items such as snacks, beverages and cigarettes. One type of conventional vending machine uses the force of gravity to sequentially feed items to a delivery bin. Such gravity-feed machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,965,262 and 3,606,081. Gravity-feed vending machines are particularly suited for the delivery of beverages in cylindrical containers, wherein the containers are caused to roll along a series of ramps to the delivery area. U.S. Pat. No. 3,606,081 discloses such a beverage vending machine having a series of ramps forming a serpentine configuration.
Conventional snack vending machines typically comprise an array of helical feeder coils having axes perpendicular to the front face of the vending machine. Upon the selection of a particular item, the helical coil corresponding to that item is rotated one turn in order to push the item off the front edge of a shelf located at the front of the machine. Such helical coil vending machines require a relatively large clearance space at the front of the machine in order to allow the items to drop into the delivery bin. This clearance space adds significantly to the depth of such machines. In addition, the holding capacity of each helical coil is limited by the depth of the machine. For bulky or thick items such as bags of potato chips, pretzels and the like, the spacing between each coil of the helix must be relatively large, thereby limiting the number of items that can be held by a coil. In conventional front-facing vending machines, this is a particular problem because the depth of the machine limits the number of bulky items that can be held by a given coil. Thus, in conventional helical coil snack machines, it is often necessary to place a bulky snack item in more than one helical coil in order to provide sufficient inventory, which disadvantageously limits the variety of snack items that can be vended from the machine. Accordingly, the depth of such conventional machines must be relatively large in order to hold a sufficient number of different snack items. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,344,953, 5,186,355 and 5,236,103 illustrate conventional helical coil vending machines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,490 discloses a relatively compact snack vending machine that can be placed on a table. While the table-mounted vending machine is more compact than conventional free-standing machines, it suffers from low holding capacity and has not gained wide-spread commercial use. The table-mounted machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,490 is similar to conventional free-standing snack machines, in that helical coils are used to move the selected items toward the front of the unit, where the items drop off the front edge of a shelf into a delivery bin. As with the free-standing machines, the clearance space required at the front of the table-mounted unit adds significantly to the depth of the machine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,600,121 and 4,942,980 disclose cigarette vending machines comprising relatively complicated mechanisms for dropping individual packs of cigarettes into a delivery area. As with the prior art snack vending machines, these cigarette vending machines require lateral movement of the items toward or away from the front face of the machines, which adds significantly to the depth of the machines.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing and to overcome other deficiencies of the prior art.